Eric Swalwell: “Eligible but busy”

Newly elected East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell, 31, a Democrat, is the second-youngest member of the 113th Congress. He’s also a bachelor in a town where single women so bemoan their lopsided ratio to single men that one advised her sisters simply to “leave town.”

The Census Bureau says Washington has the highest ratio of women to men in all 50 states — 112 to 100. Among DC residents between the ages of 20 and 39, women outnumber men by 13,716.

Swalwell beat Rep. Pete Stark, a fellow Democrat who joined Congress in 1972, nine years before Swalwell was born (Nov. 16, 1980). Stark, 81, was the oldest member of the California delegation, and the 12th oldest member of the House.

Swalwell took note that the incoming Congress “will be the youngest, most inexperienced Congress in history, and I think that’s actually an opportunity for a fresh start.”

Swalwell is not married and said he does not even have a girlfriend, much less children.

Asked if that means he is an eligible bachelor, Swalwell said, “Yeah, I guess. Focusing on getting a family going will be a priority in the coming years.”

He appended that reply to say, “Eligible but busy. I don’t know where that ranks you on eHarmony or Match.com.”

The youngest member of the incoming class is Democrat Tulsi Gabbard (April 12, 1981) of Honolulu, also making history as the first Hindu in Congress. Her Republican opponent was a homeless handyman who slept in his van. The third youngest is Joseph Kennedy III of Massachusetts (Oct. 4, 1980), the great-nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, and grandson of the late Sen. Bobby Kennedy. He is taking the seat of retired Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.